


Two to the past, Three in the Present

by RiversAndRoses



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Nonbinary future steven universe, Other, Panic Attacks, Rated T for swearing, Time Travel, because I said so, dad steven is enby, whoops too many stevens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22199497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiversAndRoses/pseuds/RiversAndRoses
Summary: But, instead of their own home, with Connie and their kids, they end up somewhere that is all too familiar.The temple and the beach house, at first, they think they accidentally went here instead of their own home. But is soon proven wrong when they spot the two younger versions of themself staring back at them.The time thing shatters in their pocket because of course, it does.~Dad!Steven universe is based off of the time travel au on tumblr but is my own thing
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Crystal Gems & Steven Universe, Steven Universe & Steven Universe & Steven Universe
Comments: 14
Kudos: 115





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Into the Universe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22139770) by [flynnaw00](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flynnaw00/pseuds/flynnaw00). 



> whoops i got hyperfixated on steven universe again so i wrote this
> 
> a bit of backstory on dad steven: i made them out of a discussion on the discord when i went: what if i made a dad steven and they were nonbinary and then this happened. Comet and Ceres are their kids :]
> 
> its going to be the same basic premise and idea as all of the other time travel fics but enby dad steven is here, because why not i guess? maybe it was also projection

Steven and Steven two, or he was dubbed as Twoie were in the beach house, it’s just a normal day. Or as normal as it can get with two versions of yourself in the same place and the second version of yourself is from the future, which is a whole different story for the time being. 

Because when you’re a half gem half-human hybrid, your life is never exactly normal. 

It’s been a while since Twoie came to this timeline and the gems are still working their hardest to make sure he gets back. But it's a time-consuming process, and it’s about to get longer. 

But the two of them don’t know it yet.

“We should go out and do something, Twoie! It’s boring just sitting in here and doing nothing!” the younger Steven says.

“Yeah. probably,” he says, staring at his phone, once again looking at all the photos of his friends and family. Careful not to look at the ones with the Diamonds or anyone he deemed dangerous to look at with Steven or any of the gems around. He’s homesick.

Steven knows better than to ask if the older version of himself is okay when he acts like this so he just hums a mindless tune instead.

“The gems are going to be gone for a while right?” man, that’s fucked up, Twoie thinks to himself, “they… are gone an awful lot.”

“I know. You said that before. I don’t mind it.” 

Twoie doesn’t believe him. He remembers days on end when he was alone when the gems were on a mission and Connie and dad were both busy.

~ 

“I should probably head home now, Blue. Ceres is probably waiting for me, you know how she is.” they say with a smile, “I think we made a lot of progress on making peace with this colony though!” after all these years, there are still gems who don’t understand, there are still aliens out there who don’t understand that the diamonds are now trying to make peace. It’s like what they told Spinel all those years ago. They’ve always got more work to do. 

“Oh! Yes, of course, dear. This is taking longer than I thought it would. You will be back when you can be right?” she asks and returns their smile, “I need to let them know about this.” 

“Yep! I’ll send you a message,” they stand up out of his chair and stretches, their back cracking after sitting for who knows how long. “See ya later!”

“Say hello to Ceres and Comet for me!” 

“Will do Blue!” they say as they head back to the warp pad

But, there’s something that catches their eye, a little ball with an hourglass. The time thing? Wasn't it destroyed when they were 13? It couldn’t have been remade already. Unless homeworld has a surplus of these things.

So they pick it up, not thinking much of it. They do need to get back home to their family after all.

After stepping on the warp, they absentmindedly fiddle with it. Thinking back to when he was that young. It was simpler back then. Not knowing much, which meant they were much more naïve.

When they warp off, they intend to go home. But the time thing floats out of their pocket, in a panic, they grab it. 

“That was close…” they mutter and put it back in their pocket. 

But, instead of their own home, with Connie and their kids, they end up somewhere that’s all too familiar. 

The temple and the beach house, at first, they think they accidentally went here instead of their own home. But is soon proven wrong when they spot the two younger versions of themselves staring back at them. 

The time thing shatters in their pocket because of course, it does. 

“Um-” 

“What the fuck!” they say, both in shock and confusion.

“Woah, Woah, Woah. First, don’t use that language around him, he’s a child.” the older Steven says, pointing to younger Steven who looks completely scandalized. Right, he knows not to swear around children, but it was just the shock of it all. “Second, who are you, why do you look like a much older version of us,” he says, and Steven can feel him staring at the patches and pins on their jacket… and just about everything about them.

“Well, I’m also you. Further ahead in the future apparently,” they say awkwardly. “How old are both of you, by the way?”

“I’m 17 and he’s 13.” the older Steven says, still very suspicious of them.

“Oh boy, oh shit.”

“What’s wrong?” the younger Steven asks, “also, you have a bunch of cool pins and patches, what do they mean?”

“Just the fact that I’m 27 and 14 years in the past when I should be in my time with my family.”

Older Steven just stares at them, “and I thought being four years in the past was bad.”

“Are you saying you don’t like me, Twoie?” 

“N-no. I like you, I just miss my family.”

Wait, Twoie? They stifle a laugh; they were terrible at naming things when they were younger, weren’t they?

“To answer your question about the flags, they’re pride flags. This one,” they point to the nonbinary one, “it's the nonbinary flag which means I’m gender-neutral or I don’t have a gender. Which is why I wear this pin,” they point to the pin that has they/them pronouns on it, “these are my pronouns, so people know and I don’t have to constantly correct them.”

“Ohh what does that one mean?” he points to the bi one.

“That one means bisexual. I found out I was that last year.” Twoie says, with a large grin, “means you like two genders.” he adds.

Steven nods, “that’s exactly it.”

“Wow… I sound so cool!” Steven says, going starry-eyed. “What other cool things do I have in the future?”

They smile, they know that the young boy does not know about the Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz thing, seeing as he’s this young. “Well, we’re married and we have a couple of kids.”

“I’m a dad in the future!?” Steven says excitedly, while Twoie blushes deeply in the background. He knows exactly who they’re talking about then.

“New nickname for you, your dad Steven now.” Twoie says, after a moment, “DS for short.”

“Ooh! That’s so clever!” Steven says with a large, excited grin.

“This will be so hard to explain to the gems.” Twoie realizes, “another us from even further suddenly arrives out of nowhere who’s just as tall as Mom was and is a Dad. Garnets going to have a crisis”

“Ah, yeah, oops. But being built like a brick shi\- I mean craphouse was from her, I guess.” They sigh, “being a quartz and all,” they add after a moment of consideration, seeing Twoie wince slightly after adding that. 

“I can’t wait to get big and strong like you!”

Twoie sits back down on the couch with a sigh with a very excited Steven following behind him. It’s strange seeing themselves so young. 

They follow and sit on the other side of Twoie, “so um, what now?” 

“We were waiting for the gems to get back from a mission but then you showed up.” 

“Ah.” they hum, putting their hand in their pockets again, only to be reminded about the shattered time thing in their pocket. 

“Yeah! They said that it wouldn’t take them too long!”

Not even a second later, the warp pad glows again and DS is filled with so much nostalgia that they might cry as the gems appear, in the outfits they haven’t seen in years.

But all the three of them are staring at them with equally shocked expressions.

“Um. hi,” DS says, waving slightly

“There’s another one!?” Amethyst yells, “why does he look so old!”

DS winces, “I use they/them. Also, I’m from 14 years in the future? So um.”

“But how did you even get here?” Pearl asks, coming up to him, arms crossed. 

“Um. found another time thing. Somewhere.” shit this was so hard to explain without actually saying they were on homeworld. “It’s hard to explain without giving anything away.”

“Okay. well, looks like we have another one to deal with.” Garnet says, coming over to them and adjusts her shades, they think it weirds everyone out that Garnet has to look up at them slightly. “do you still have the pieces?”

“U-um, yeah, still in my pocket.” they carefully take the pieces out. Homeworld had made this one more durable and not just completely disappear like the other one did. 

“We’ll have to bubble the pieces,” Garnet holds out her hands in which DS fishes out the pieces and puts them in her open palms, careful not to cut himself on the broken glass, mostly succeeding with that. But it’s no big deal as he licks the wounds away. Cuts are nothing compared to full-on battle injuries.

They watch as Garnet bubbles the shards and send them away into her room and then gives them a look as she moves to stand off to the side. 

“So what do we call you?” Amethyst asks.

“Well, Twoie dubbed me Dad Steven or DS for short because, well, I’m a dad,” they say awkwardly. 

“And you… didn’t die?” Pearl asks tentatively.

They laugh, “no, no, my gem didn’t get passed on or else I wouldn’t be here, nor would I have two children. They’re perfectly human! As far as we can tell.” DS blushes slightly, they love their kids more than anything else in the universe.

The two of them are their universe, as corny as that is.

“Aww!” Steven gushes, “that’s so sweet!”

“That sounds lame.” Amethyst says scoffing, “It sounds like you don’t have any fun anymore.”

“Amethyst!” Both Pearl and Twoie scold.

They just shrug, “it’s cool, my amethyst said something similar once.”

“Wait,” Twoie says, realizing something. “Does this mean that it will take longer for you guys to get the adhesive? Or even get the right amount of it?”

The mood in the room is quickly dampened with that. None of them had thought about that. Considering that they only had one Steven from the future to worry about. Now there’s two. 

“It appears so,” Garnet says coolly, even though DS can tell that she's only keeping it in for everyone else’s sake. Who knows how many futures she's looking through? Who knows how many futures where… they don’t go home? Or where Twoie doesn’t go home? Or where neither of them can go home, stuck in the past where they don’t belong?

DS doesn’t want to think about it for too long. They can’t imagine how garnet feels with all of that though. 

“Guess we’ll have to see,” Garnet says after a moment. “The future is always flowing and changing. My future vision is not always reliable, but it is helpful.”

Twoie sighs, “right.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl makes an offhand comment, Twoie nearly panics, DS talks about their family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay ngl, i made it that Blue and DS got along best bc i am very biased towards blue and i love her
> 
> I now have a title!!

“You look… so much like her.” Pearl says and Twoie snaps his head up and quickly realizes that she was not referring to him, but to DS instead.

“Oh, I do? Never noticed,” they say awkwardly, but bitterly at the same time. 

“Both- both of you do.” Twoie grips the edge of the couch, he _hates_ that here in the past, he’s still associated with _her_. That he’s synonymous, to _her_. That he _wanted_ to be just like _her_. He can't handle it. 

“I-” he mumbles, “I’m not like-” he almost says her name but bites it back. He feels like he’s going to lose it.

“You remind me of her, DS. she would’ve loved you. She’d be so proud of you, Twoie.”

He grips his stomach, right where his gem is. He’s on the verge of a panic attack. He can feel it. He can't stand the mention of Rose/Pink now, after learning about all the things she had done. How badly she had affected all of his family. From The Diamonds to Dad to Amethyst to Volleyball. Twoie is trying to steady himself enough, so he doesn’t turn pink. So he doesn’t ruin the house. The picture of Rose looms above him, mocking him, _judging him_.

DS seems to notice this, though. He doesn’t know how they do it. He wants to know how they’re holding it in so well. 

“Hold that thought, Pearl,” DS says with a strained voice. They then come over to Twoie, put a hand on his shoulder, “hey. Let’s go talk, buddy.” there are tears in the corners of their eyes. 

He inhales sharply, lets go of the couch, stands up and follows DS into Her room. Ignoring the look of concern that’s plastered on Pearl’s face.

As soon as the door closes he screams. 

“I’M NOT LIKE HER!” yells, turning pink out of the pent up anger. “I’m so fucking _tired_ of being compared to her. I’m so tired of being reminded of what she’s done.”

DS sighs, “I feel the same way. I think you saw how uncomfortable I was.”

Twoie practically deflates and sinks to the floor, the anger rushes out of him in exchange for frustration and almost desperation. Tears are running down his face. “It's been really hard… it hurts whenever she gets mentioned.”

“I don’t think Pearl knows that we know.” they put their arms around his shoulder, both in comfort and in solidarity, “were in a time where our younger self doesn’t have a fuck ton of trauma surrounding his mom. Or _any_ trauma in general.”

Twoie nods, the tears are still streaming down his face. “I miss them. I feel horrible about what I said about them last. Do you-”

“Remember? yes... “ DS frowns, tears are running down their face now, too. “I miss my family too.”

“Can- can you tell me about them?”

“You know who they are already,” DS chuckles, wiping a tear away from their eye. “Unless you want to know about what’s changed.”

“I just want to get my mind off of everything,” Twoie says, wrapping his arms around himself, he hates feeling this way.

“Okay, where do you want me to start?”

“The gems.”

“Well, Pearl and Volley started dating.”

“I’m not too surprised about that one,” he says, his tears already slowing. 

“Yeah. she, yp and bp are pretty close now, too. Amethyst is doing good, still teaching at the school, we may not run it anymore, but I help out with classes from time to time. Garnet is about the same, sometimes she unfuses for the sake of it and the kids.”

“Hey room, could you make us a couch?” Twoie interrupts, just for a moment so he can sit on something comfortable. “What… about the diamonds?” He asks tentatively 

“Blue and I are working on making peace with an alien race whose planet was affected by the authority. Thats... what I was doing before i came here.” DS’s face screws up in frustration, “but anyway, would you believe that the two of us get along the best? The kids love her too. They love all the diamonds, but blue is their favorite, but I can’t let them know that.” DS says fondly at the mention of their kids. “Other than that, they’ve taken to equality really well.”

“What about…?” Twoie says, and DS deflates a bit. The air around the two of then turns sour for a moment, the name of the gem that Twoie is talking about doesn’t even have to be said. They both know that she’s waiting. Waiting for the impossible return of a certain someone.

“Spinel.” 

“Yeah.” he doesn’t really know how to feel about her, to be honest.

DS nods, Twoie realizes that they have their hair down. Probably one of the sole reasons that Pearl commented on how similar they looked to Rose. 

Twoie squeezes his eyes shut. Enough about what pink had done. “What about Lapis, Peridot, and Bismuth?”

“Well, the three of them are a thing.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they became really close while teaching their classes since there was some overlap. So they decided that, hey, why not? It’s good for Lapis.”

It goes unspoken that the blue gem is… finally happy.

“Can… can you tell me about your kids?” he asks tentatively.

DS grins widely, while there still are tears running down their face, Twoie guesses that they will take every opportunity to talk about them. “Ceres is turning four soon. She’s my oldest, imagine Stevonnie but with more feminine features and also a child. She loves cats, so lion is like a dream come true to her. While lion more or less tolerates her.” they say, while opening their phone to show him pictures of the young girl. “Then there’s Cosmo, my baby boy. He’s only about seven months old, the cutest little thing ever. He looks more like Connie, though.” They present their phone to Twoie, showing the smiling young girl in the arms of pearl with a look of absolute pride on his face. 

Another one of her asleep against lion. One with Dad, whose hair seems to have grown back, the only difference is that there are grays in it. 

Then a picture of the three of them, Connie in a hospital bed looking exhausted, a newborn in her arms. The next is where Cosmo is a bit older in this one and is being held in his older sister's arms.

Twoie smiles, now feeling a bit calmer. He’s glad that DS is here. Without them, he knows that the situation would’ve gone much more differently. He would’ve lashed out, he would’ve damaged the house, he could've let the beans spill. 

Who knows how long it could’ve taken him to calm down by himself? 

But listening to DS gush about their family was… nice. Twoie knows what could become his future, now in some form, anyway. 

“I know this is going to sound super cheesy and shit, but they’re my… universe.” They say with a blush.

**Author's Note:**

> not really satisfied with the beginning but wahey
> 
> follow me on tumblr! keplered!
> 
> now i gotta write this candlenights exchange fic for taz lmao


End file.
